


Book Club

by floralathena



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2018-12-13 23:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11770260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralathena/pseuds/floralathena
Summary: The kid, who wore a Captain America shirt and an old ratty backpack covered in rather sophisticated Sharpie art, began to back away, and Jace panicked. It wasn’t his fault that the only person who showed up to the club had nice, soft-looking hair and sparkling eyes and a beautiful voice and roughly the same amount of energy as five kindergarteners on a field trip to the zoo. He couldn’t let him leave.“I’m him! Um, I’m Jace. Book club... guy.” he said lamely.“Oh! Good,” the kid replied, smiling, “I’m Simon! I guess it’s just us this time. What’s the plan?”Simon dumped his bag onto the floor and fell into the plush chair next to Jace, sinking into the overstuffed cushions as if he hung out in the library every day. Maybe he did.“Well, it’s the first meeting and it’s just the two of us, so I figure we can just… talk about where we want to go from here?”Simon nodded, shot him a megawatt grin, and oh no, Jace was so in over his head.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> "Book Club" is a solid cover, and Jace stands by it.

“Nice of you to come home tonight, Jace.”

_ Shit.  _ Jace sighed, and set his backpack down on the pristine kitchen island. He turned around, an apologetic smile on his face. Maryse was in her pajamas, a sensible grey flannel set that he and Alec had gone halfsies on last Christmas and let Max wrap as his gift.

“I’m sorry, Maryse, I should have called-”

“But you didn’t,” Maryse said, “Instead you tried to sneak in through the side door and pretend like you came home with your brother.” Maryse sighed and leaned back against the wall, looking more defenseless than Jace had ever seen her. “I don’t know what to do with you, Jace.”

Maryse’s defeated tone was unsettling and uncharacteristic, and Jace was sorely tempted to start a fight. He was used to her micromanaging, he was used to her and Izzy’s one-in-the-morning-where-the-hell-have-you-been-and-what-are-you-wearing screaming matches, and he was certainly used to her passive-aggressive jabs at Alec's (admittedly few) shortcomings. This time, though, she seemed to have run out of anger, and sadness was all that remained. Jace had to will his mouth shut to avoid asking where Robert was tonight.

“Where the hell were you?”

Jace didn’t think  _ “I was in Kaelie Rosenthal’s bedroom for the past five hours”  _ would make Maryse very happy. So he thought of an alternative. 

Maryse was looking at him expectantly. Jace cast his eyes down and hunched his shoulders. He took a deep breath.

“I didn’t want to tell you until it really got off the ground, but. Um. I’m starting a book club?”

Maryse stared him down, unimpressed. “Uh-huh,” she said lowly, shaking her head and sighing, “Jace, please, give me  _ something _ . I’ve already got three people in this house lying to me. Don’t make it four.”

Fuck.  _ Fuck _ , this was not the night to fuck around with a pretty girl on the dance team. 

“I’m not lying! I haven’t gotten it approved by the principal yet, I’m still trying to figure out who can be our staff advisor, but I have a few kids who want to join.”

Maryse eyed Jace carefully. “That still isn’t an answer. Where were you?”

Jace was suddenly very glad that he took an introductory improv class with Izzy last summer. He was close. He just needed to sell this last bit, and he was home free. “I was at the library. There are only a few books that they have more than, like, two copies of, and I can’t expect people to buy a book every week, that’s a lot. So I was seeing which books they have class sets of, because I know the school borrows from them. We can start with those, and then maybe utilize the library’s ebook collection or borrow from other libraries in the area.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, Maryse was actually impressed. She may have just been impressed with his ability to come up with an elaborate story on the fly, but she was impressed nevertheless.

“...Alright. I’m going to choose to believe you. Don’t make that the wrong decision.”

“I won’t,” Jace said, feeling vaguely sick to his stomach. 

Maryse held her arms open for a hug, and as he approached, Jace saw the relief in her eyes.

“I’m proud of you, you know that? All of you,” Maryse said, and Jace hugged her tighter. 

“I won’t let you down,” Jace whispered.

Maryse cleared her throat, sniffed, and pushed Jace back. She held him at arm’s length and looked him in the eye as she spoke. “Alright, off to bed. If I see you again before 6 tomorrow morning, you won’t leave this house until college.”

Jace smiled, nodded, grabbed his backpack, and tried to ignore the sinking feeling inside. He walked down the hall and passed the door to his room, opened the last door on the right, and collapsed onto Alec’s bed, limbs splayed out. Alec gave him a cold over-the-shoulder look from his desk chair across the room.

“What did you do this time that you think warrants entering my room without knocking?”

“Alec, was there a lot of paperwork involved in starting the archery club?”

Alec put down his notes and swiveled to face Jace with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yeah, but it was mostly insurance stuff so that I wouldn’t sue the school if some freshman aimed at my foot instead of the target.”

“Cool, cool, cool, cool. You want to join a book club?”

“Jesus Christ,” Alec muttered, and swiveled back around.

“That wasn’t a no!”

“Go to your room.”

“So, you’ll tell all your friends?”

“I hate you.”

“I’ll mark you and Aline down as members.”

“Why Aline?”

“You agreed to tell all of your friends.”

Alec sighed. “I’m choosing to ignore that comment. I’ll let her know she can text you if she’s interested. Now, please, I have a test tomorrow and I need to study.”

Jace leapt up and awkwardly hugged Alec from behind, squishing his face into the top of his brother’s head. “You’re a lifesaver, bro.”

“Yeah, yeah, go bother Izzy,” Alec grumbled, hiding a smile and waving Jace away with a textbook.


	2. The Song of Achilles, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jace's first meeting goes better than he had thought it might.

Jace sat at an old library table, incessantly tapping his pencil against the chipped, graffiti-ed surface. He glanced down at his phone screen, which displayed the time 15:28. Two more minutes until the set meeting time he had (against his better judgement) submitted to be read on the morning announcements. Izzy had tryouts for either volleyball, cheer, or soccer (none of which she could be convinced to drop out of practicality), and Alec had an after-school study session with some classmates from AP Gov. Jace was on his own.

He peered anxiously around the room. The library was cozy and convenient, just a few blocks away from the school. It smelled a bit musty, but there were numerous Wallflower air fresheners throughout the building pumping out the pleasant smells of fall, so Jace figured the librarians kept the place as clean and nice-smelling as they could in such an old building. He had optimistically chosen a rather small table, with only four plush chairs around it, praying for a small group that would be alright with a club coordinator who had no idea what he was doing. He checked his phone again- 15:30.

“Military time, huh? That’s cool! You know, there are all of those studies that say using it can improve your brain’s ability to handle numbers, and I’ve tried to turn it on on my phone, but I always end up confusing myself and missing appointments and it’s a wreck. You’re Jace, right? The book club guy? ...Oh, no, you aren’t, are you? You’re just some dude. I am so sorry, dude, I didn’t-”

The kid, who wore a Captain America shirt and an old ratty backpack covered in rather sophisticated Sharpie art, began to back away, and Jace panicked. It wasn’t his fault that the only person who showed up to the club had nice, soft-looking hair and sparkling eyes and a beautiful voice and roughly the same amount of energy as five kindergarteners on a field trip to the zoo. He couldn’t let him leave.

“I’m him! Um, I’m Jace. Book club... guy.” he said lamely.

“Oh! Good,” the kid replied, smiling, “I’m Simon! I guess it’s just us this time. What’s the plan?”

Simon dumped his bag onto the floor and fell into the plush chair next to Jace, sinking into the overstuffed cushions as if he hung out in the library every day. Maybe he did.

“Well, it’s the first meeting and it’s just the two of us, so I figure we can just… talk about where we want to go from here?”

Simon nodded, shot him a megawatt grin, and oh no, Jace was  _ so _ in over his head.

“Sounds good, Mr. President!”

Jace laughed, a little louder than he might have had Simon not been so dang cute, and was summarily glared at by the (way more muscular than he had any right to be) librarian. He whispered, “It’s not like we held an election.”

“Well, you’re the founder. Did you have any ideas for our first book?” Simon asked, and produced a shiny new notebook from his backpack.

Jace raised an eyebrow. “By the looks of the list you’re pulling out, you certainly do. After you, Mr. Vice President,” he said, and Simon responded with a small, proud yet bashful smile.

“I just wrote down some ideas I had, but I don’t think we should pick one until next week. I feel like it should be a group decision.”

“Well, you don’t know if we’ll have a group next week. Maybe it’ll just be you and me,” Jace said, and found himself hoping that would be the case.

“Oh, we will! My friend Clary already promised she would come next week, and I’m gonna ask my other friends Maureen, Maia, and Magnus.”

Jace blinked. “Wow. I’ll invite my friends Miranda, Miguel, and Michael.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Clary’s different!”

“You managed to make one friend without the first initial M, congratulations!”

“Uh, two, unless you spell Jace with a silent M?”

“You met me, like, three minutes ago,” Jace said with a chuckle. He peeked at Simon’s list, which appeared to have been color-coded according to some made-up categories that only Simon understood. Simon had also doodled a little picture in the margin next to each book. They weren’t very impressive, but his doodled music notes all over a lump that might have been a rock made Jace interested in reading whatever  _ Princess Academy _ was.

“I’m your vice president, Jace, that’s even more than friendship. That’s, like…”

Jace raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

Simon paused. He glanced at the librarian, who nodded at him.

“...Like partnership.”

“Yeah, partners?”

“Oh, yeah. You’re committed now, buddy. No backing out.”

“You make it sound like a prison sentence,” Jace said, leaning closer to Simon.

"Does that make me the warden?" Simon asked, and Jace had to tamp down on his stupid brain's indulgent fantasies in order to reply.

"Oh no, partner. We're in here together, like you said."

Simon gave him a smirk, and Jace had to shut his brain up once more.

"Then I guess we should get down to picking a first book."

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make a decision without the rest of our eventual group. Maybe we could narrow down your list?”

“Oh, totally! Ok, so I have fifteen on the list right now, which I know is kind of a lot for a first meeting, but I got excited, and I wasn’t doing anything in my last class anyways. The first one, Inkheart, is about this guy Mo who can bring books to life, it’s incredible, it changed my life. It’s a bit too long to read in a week, but it’s really good for conversation if we ever want to go longer between meetings or meet, like, mid-book?”

Simon was excited, and Jace wondered if he always looked like  _ that _ , or if he only glowed like a sunset when he talked about books. 

“...But that’s, like, way off, and obviously it’s up to you, it’s your club, I’m just here-”

Jace realized with a shock that he had been staring while Simon waited for an answer, and he scrambled to cut Simon off.

“No, that’s a great idea, we could read it over winter break or something!” Jace exclaimed, and sent an apologetic smile to the intimidating librarian, who simply raised an eyebrow.

Now Jace was the one who felt overeager and uncomfortable. He glanced down at the list, eager to change the subject and listen to Simon gush about another book. He pointed at number eleven, by which Simon had doodled a broken heart held together by golden ropes.

“Hey,  _ The Song of Achilles _ ! I actually have that one, my sister got it for me, I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Is it good?”

Simon looked at him like he had grown an extra head. “Is it good? Is it  _ good _ ? I’ve read it, like, five times and I think I cry more each time. It’s incredible, Jace, you have to read it!”

“What’s it about?” Jace asked.

“Okay, so you know the ancient Greek story of Achilles?” Simon asked expectantly.

“Sorta.”

“He was the golden boy, the chosen champion of the gods. Achilles was known as the best of the Greeks, and it was widely known that he would find glory in a legendary battle. He had a companion, Patroclus, and the story is told from his point of view. It’s about them growing up and falling in love and going to war, all with the shadow of this legacy hanging over their heads.”

“Huh,” Jace said, and looked once more at Simon’s doodle. “I think we’ve found our first book. Just the two of us, and we can decide on another next week when we have more members.”

Jace looked up and met Simon’s ( _ soft, beautiful, bright, brown _ ) eyes.

“Just the two of us. Yeah, I like that,” Simon said, and Jace felt his heart soar straight up out of his chest.


	3. The Song of Achilles, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isabelle Lightwood is a scientist at heart.

“Oh, Alec, I’m in  _ love _ !” Izzy wailed in the deepest pitch she could muster, collapsing onto Maryse’s pristine designer chaise and throwing a hand across her forehead. She lay in silence, awaiting a reaction. Maintaining her anguished expression, she unscrewed the cap of her São Paulo Strawberry Lemonade, took a dainty sip, and tossed her hair with panache before once more throwing herself onto the cool white leather.

“I don’t sound like that,” Jace said without sparing a glance up from his phone. 

“Oh,  _ Isabelle _ , I’m just consumed by lust every waking moment! He’s just so  _ passionate _ and  _ insightful _ and I must  _ have him _ for my own!” Izzy gesticulated wildly, nearly knocking an antique porcelain vase onto the cold marble floor and saving herself with a quick hand, practiced from catching her phone at the last possible second. 

Jace still didn’t look up.

Dropping the act, Izzy scrunched up her face and sat up, assembling her long legs into the classic criss-cross applesauce position. 

“What’s wrong? You usually join in. I need you to mock me, I’m so close to perfect that sometimes I forget I’m not.” 

It was this blatant lie that finally compelled Jace to meet his sister’s eyes. 

“Izzy, you literally recreated that garbage can vine at school yesterday.”

“Perfect people can leap into trash cans too, you know,” she said, setting her face into a grim mask before breaking into a light chuckle. “Really, Jace, what’s up? I know you don’t like Simon, I’m just teasing.”

“Mm-hmm,” Jace said weakly, and  _ oh _ . 

A glimmer of hope… or a death knell.

“How are you liking that book? I can’t believe it took you this long to start it.”

“It’s pretty good. Really different,” he said in a tone that could mean a million things, and Isabelle waited for a few seconds before realizing that he was done talking.

“...When’s your next meeting again? I want to support you, loser,” she said as casually as she could manage.

“Uh, same time and place every week, Friday at 3 in the library.” The awkward smile he sent her before looking back down to his phone twisted the knife that she could almost forget sat in her heart. 

Izzy let him return to his light-speed typing without complaint and turned to share a look with Alec, who was… Reading a textbook with earbuds in. Of course Izzy would even be alone in her own damned house.

Contrary to popular belief, Isabelle Lightwood was no fool. She knew that it was ridiculous to wear red lipstick and high heels to school every day, just as she knew that when she defended makeup as an art form that made her feel empowered it wasn’t exactly the truth. She knew that most of the school called her slut and bitch behind her back, just as she knew that they were all immature and insecure. She knew to test the waters before diving in (unlike her brothers, who had a cannonball competition the first day of winter break and spent the rest of break in bed miserable because the pool hadn’t been heated yet). Isabelle Lightwood knew many things, and above all, she knew the scientific method by heart.

The book in Jace’s lap was no accident.

She began to flick through channels on the TV.

Holmes on Homes,  _ why is he afraid to tell me _ , I Love Lucy,  _ why am I afraid to hear it,  _ Kids Baking Championship,  _ I haven’t looked Alec in the eye in days _ , Criminal Minds,  _ Dad hasn’t been home in weeks _ , Jane the Virgin,  _ will I even have a family by this time next year? _

Mean Girls was on. She clicked SELECT just in time to see Janis Ian scream about her big lesbian crush in the middle of a crowded gymnasium, and slammed the OFF button as quickly as she could. 

“I’m gonna go study down at Java Jones,” she mumbled, leaving her lemonade to make an unsightly ring on the side table and grabbing her keys.

Neither of her brothers noticed that she didn’t grab her wallet or her backpack before speeding out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know: it's short, and we STILL haven't actually gotten to the book club part. I promise that this is necessary, and I promise that by summer I'll be able to update more frequently (school is kicking my ass at the moment). 
> 
> Let me know in the comments if any of you have read something good lately! I've just read The House On Mango Street, and it will certainly be making an appearance later in this fic!

**Author's Note:**

> Following this prologue, each chapter will feature a different book read by the club.  
> I hope you'll stick by our kids while they read and learn a little more about the world and each other <3


End file.
